A homeless 13-year-old Filipino won a very prestigious award for his commitment to improving the lives of fellow street kids. Cris “Kesz” Valdez, who lived off a trash dump and slept in an open tomb for the majority of his childhood, was awarded last year’s International Children’s Peace Prize in The Hague on September 19, 2012.Gifts of HopeFor his seventh birthday, Kesz didn’t want any presents for himself. Instead, he wanted to give something to other street children: Gifts of Hope. That same year, Kesz started his own organization, Championing Community Children, aimed at giving street children hope and showing them that they can take their future into their own hands. Every week, he and his friends go to underprivileged communities to teach children about hygiene, food and children’s rights. He even takes things a step further, by teaching children how to teach each other. He…

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Hi Jacks,
This video made me cry – and made me feel guilty too. Are we adults helping out the kids like this “kid” is doing? I don’t – and I am angry with myself for being so selfish. “The poor will always be with you”. What do you think Jesus was trying to tell us when he said that? I feed the finches – and all they do is – make more hungry finches to feed.
r

you are right about the poor – they have lots of babies to have children they can depend on when they are old. rick told me that. wealthy countries have stable or decreasing populations. jesus encouraged his followers to help the poor, but I think he was said that for their own salvation, not to end poverty, because that will never end. but maybe it will someday, I don’t know. the UB talks about the age of light and life when all people become fully aware of the spiritual life purpose. as long as people chase after material goods there will probably always be poverty.
i cried watching this amazing kid. but I don’t hate myself because that is not what I am here to do. I think comparing myself to others is the opposite of love regardless of the reasons for doing it. i’ll write a little essay about that on my blog someday. just say a prayer of thanksgiving for this child who is doing what he is led to do to improve his world. he is listening closely to the Holy Spirit. perhaps he has a highly evolved TA?
thanks for taking the time to write

don’t you feed the finches so that you can experience what it might be like to be God? I don’t think God pays too much attention to our “plights” – God created us as we are, selfish. I would rather think about that reality, than think God didn’t have a divine purpose for God’s creation.

Life as a sandwich generation x’er, stacked with irony. As a ‘normal’ person peering out from the boundaries of suburbia, as a transplant from another state, maybe another planet. As a mother of teenage boys and freelance working writer balancing parenting with helping to care for my mother. And now as an only child of a mother with Alzheimer’s (which sucks).